Internet censorship
'May 19th Facebook Ban: Damage Assessment' On May 19th the Lahore High Courst issued a notice to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority requesting a ban on the Social Networking site, Facebook ...Continued With immediate effect Pakistan's blog-sphere and Twitter-sphere jumped into action to protest the ban. A Twiter hashtag, #FBPkBan was created where Freedom Advocates and activist from the Pakistani diaspora have displayed an outcry at the recent High Court notice. Presently leading the campaign are @arrafiq, @DrAwab, @Ramlas, @ifaqeer , @Sabeen, @kidvai, @hushamahmed Other members from the Blogosphere, Technology and Business community are encouraged to share any information that you may have here. =Events= *Press Conference: May 20th at Karachi Press Club click for details =Community Outcry= *Initial community outcry on Twitter #FBBanPk Exerpts: Blogosphere Islam isn't threatened by Facebook. You don't like the site, close your account. Maybe concentrate on unjust wars, occupation, drones? -- FatimaBhutto PTA seriously needs some educated, teach-aware people in their censorship board, who know how to block pages instead of whole freakng domain -- HamzaZafar Crazies, censorship is censorship. Even if (it is) Facebook is wildly repellent, there's never any excuse to censor. -- FatimaBhotto The REAL issue is not #FBpkban. It is the self-oppressive mindset of the larger population which rejoices in self-harm. Matter of concern -- RamlaAkhtar What's wrong w/ D media? Why aren't they getting that Facebook ban is part of a larger issue that could effect ? -- Siliconstani One bad guy in a village? Burn, the whole village down. Problem solved! --HushamAhmed =Industry Position= Below this is a list of Pakistan-based or Pakistan-related Facebook Pages that have been affected by the Facebook ban. List your page's name linked to its original FB address (Google to look it up) if possible, approx number of members (fans), and briefly explain the nature of the work you were doing. Thanks. Business Pages (Commercial pages. Includes services.) *DELL Pakistan -- 26,294 members -- equipment provider *DAWN.COM -- 16,000 members -- provides news *PEPSI Pakistan -- 13,271 members -- beverage manufacturer *Google Pakistan --4,206 members -- Google.com.pk Facebook presence *Newsweek Pakistan -- 7,802 members -- news provider *Cinnabon Pakistan -- 4,465 members *Wi-Tribe 5,272 members -- Wireless Broadband Provider *Levi's Pakistan -- 18,902 members *ETail.Pk -- 3,821 members -- Online Store *Standard Charter Pakistan -- 1,333 members -- Bank *CIO Pakistan -- 863 members -- provides news *Inspurate Design -- Graphic & Web Design Service provider *Karachi Snob -- Restaurant Agregator NGOs/ Community-Based Organizations' Pages All non-profit, advocacy organizations) *The Second Floor (T2F) -- 5,462 members -- Community organizations *Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) -- 2,717 members *TiE Lahore Chapter *TiE Karachi Chapter *Strengthening Democracy Through Parliamentary Debate *Pakistan Changemakers Hub -- 311 members -- Connecting community leaders with the public, to enable change for all (in health, education, etc.) Organizational/ Institutional Pages (Universities, governmental agencies, utilities, etc.) Government Pages *Pakistan Army -- 13,980 members *Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC)-- 3,874 members -- Pakistan Government *U.S. Embassy Pakistan -- 1,619 members =Personal Pages= (Including celebrities and everyday citizens) *Why I won't boycott Facebook, Blog post by @Fursid =Press Coverage= *ABC News Report: Facebook Banned in Pakistan *Facebook & Islam: Culture Clash, PC World *Facebook Disappointment, Mulls Situation, The Express Tribune =Advocacy= =Links= Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) =Previous Campaigns= *Blog Crackdown *YouTube Ban in Pakistan *Blog Crackdown in India, Pakistan diaspora's involvement Site created: Wednesday, May 20th, 2010